On Friday, November 2, 2012, the Ben T. Zinn Combustion Laboratory was dedicated on the Georgia Tech campus.  The lab dedication recognizes Zinn's more than 40 years as an aerospace engineering professor at Georgia Tech and his work in combustion processes and instabilities.  The Ben T. Zinn Symposium on Combustion Instabilities took place November 1-2, featuring speakers from industry, NASA, and universities across the world.  The laboratory dedication concluded the two-day celebration with Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson presiding at the ceremony.  According to AE Professor and symposium co-organizer Tim Lieuwen, "This is a rare and singular event for a building on campus to be named after a faculty member."

Dr. Ben T. Zinn received his Ph.D. degree from Princeton University in 1965.  He joined Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in 1965 and was appointed to the David S. Lewis, Jr. Chair (honorary professorship) in 1992.

Dr. Zinn's research activities include combustion fundamentals, combustion instabilities in liquid and solid rockets, gas turbines, afterburners and ramjets, pulse combustion, fluid mechanics, fire safety, acoustics, and engine noise.  His research findings are described in about 150 refereed papers, 260 unrefereed papers and reports, two edited AIAA Progess Series books on combustion diagnostics, and a chapter on "Pulse Combustion" in "Advanced Combustion Methods', published by Academic Press.  He is also a co-holder of nine patents.

Dr. Zinn's honors and awards include: membership in the National Academy of Engineering, the IGTI (International Gas Turbine Institute), the 2005 Aircraft Engine Technology Award, the IGTI Scholar Lecture, the ASME George Westinghouse Gold Medal, the Egerton Gold Medal of the Combustion Institute, the AIAA "Propellants and Combustion",  "Air Breathing Propulsion" and "Pendray Literature" Awards, Georgia Tech's "Distinguished Professor Award" and "Faculty Research Award", Fellow of the AIAA, ASME and the Acoustical Society of America, and NASA's Certificate of Recognition.